12 Diseases That Altered History

It's often taught that the course of history hinges upon great battles, both in war and among competing ideas. The stars are a few powerful individuals—presidents, monarchs, dictators—whose actions can shift a society's development one way or another. But some influential actors are nasty and ruthless—and microscopic. In his book Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World, Irwin Sherman, a professor emeritus of biology at the University of CaliforniaRiverside, describes how bacteria, parasites, and viruses have swept through cities and devastated populations, felled great leaders and thinkers, and in their wake transformed politics, public health, and economies. U.S.News & World Report spoke with Sherman about how 12 key diseases—smallpox, tuberculosis, syphilis, AIDS, influenza, bubonic plague, cholera, malaria, yellow fever, two noninfectious diseases (hemophilia and porphyria), and the plant disease behind the Irish Potato Famine—have altered history.

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2008/01/03/12-diseases-that-altered-history.html